MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) — Google LLC has remedied breaches of Russian fair competition laws regarding its restrictions on making payments to application developers from Russia, the press service of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) informs.
In July 2022, the FAS found that Google LLC, which owns and operates the Google Play app store, required developers distributing paid apps through the platform to use the Google payment system exclusively.
These rules amounted to the abuse of the market dominance on the part of the company, so the FAS issued a respective warning to Google's Russian subsidiary.
According to the FAS, in August Google announced that it had amended the Google Play Developer Program Rules and removed the ban on the use of third-party payment systems.
Having analyzed the actions of the company the Antimonopoly Service came to the conclusion that Google had actually complied with the issued warning, the statement reads.
Previously, downloading of paid applications, as well as access to functions and services (for example, paying for a subscription), could be paid for exclusively through the internal payment system of Google Play. Otherwise, the company would not allow the application into its store. Developers in Russia can now use alternative payment methods, the FAS said.